The President's News Conference

THE PRESIDENT. Please be seated.

[1.] I want to call your attention, first, to a booklet that has been gotten out by the State Department on forced labor in the Soviet Union.¹ It is available and most-it's most interesting.

¹ "Forced Labor in the Soviet Union," Department of State publication 4716 (Government Printing Office, 1952, 69 pp.).

[Reading] "I know most of you are probably aware that the United Nations has been investigating the practice of forced labor. The United States has been most anxious that the facts be made known. I therefore want to call your attention today to this factual expose of forced labor in the Soviet Union and its satellites which was compiled by the Department of State. It contains many vivid examples of what it means to live under the present Soviet rulers, and indicates the scope of this practice in the Russian sphere and its economic and political significance.

"With the urging and support of labor organizations, particularly American labor and the International Confederation of free Trade Unions, the United States and Great Britain requested the United Nations to investigate forced labor wherever it exists in the world. As a result, the United Nations created a special committee headed by an outstanding Indian leader."

I can't pronounce his name, so you will have to read it--Sir Ramaswami Mudaliar.

[Continuing reading] "This committee held hearings in New York in June and will continue its investigation in Geneva beginning October 14. The United States Government made available to the United Nations committee such evidence as it had of forced labor in the Soviet sphere. The State Department has summarized all these facts in this booklet"--which is most interesting reading. And it's written in language that is easy to read.

It hasn't very many State Department words in it, so you will have a good time reading it. [Laughter]

Mr. Perimeter.² Mr. President, we have copies for them.

THE PRESIDENT. Irv tells me that there are copies available at the door when you go out. I am ready for questions.

² Irving Perimeter, Assistant Press Secretary.

[2.] Q. Mr. President, I am sure you are anticipating a question on this one. General Eisenhower said that during 1946 he was in Georgia and he was directed to return to Washington to assume command of the railway strikers just as they were to be drafted, and he refused with a bitter protest?

THE PRESIDENT. I know no such conversation took place. And the Chief of Staff would never refuse an order from the Commander in Chief, I know that, if he had one--which he did not, in this case.

Q. No such conversation took place ?

THE PRESIDENT. No.

Q. I wonder if we might have that read back?

THE PRESIDENT. No such conversation took place, and I know that the Chief of Staff of the United States Army would not tell the Commander in Chief that he would not obey an order. That just isn't done.

Roger³ informs me that somebody else might have had a conversation. I am talking from my own knowledge. No conversation took place so far as I am concerned. Never thought of any such conversation, cause the strike was settled before it was necessary to do anything.

³ Roger Tubby, Assistant Press Secretary.

Q. Mr. President, in line with the same story, papers carried word that informed sources at Eisenhower headquarters said that he had informed you he would resign as Chief of Staff and his Army commission rather than act as a strikebreaker.

THE PRESIDENT. I am sorry that the informed sources are grossly misinformed. [Laughter]

Q. That never happened, in other words?

THE PRESIDENT. Of course it didn't.

[3.] Q. Mr. President, did Governor Stevenson ask you to make this long whistlestop tour ?

THE PRESIDENT. Yes. The national committee did, which represents Governor Stevenson. He is in agreement with it, I can assure you of that.

Q. You are still in the ranks ?

THE PRESIDENT. How's that?

Q. You are still in the ranks ?

THE PRESIDENT. Oh, yes. I expect to stay there until the thing is over.

[4.] Q. Mr. President, you said Mr. Tubby had said that such a conversation might have taken place with someone else. Did it, to your knowledge?

THE PRESIDENT. No. Not that I know of. I know nothing about any such conversation. It has just come out of the free air just lately. It's a political proposition entirely.

Q. Mr. President, I got sort of lost when we jumped to another subject. Could Mr. Romagna⁴ read back to us one or two sentences-that last part of your comment, just before the question about the whistlestop ?

THE PRESIDENT. Yes, go ahead.

⁴ Jack Romagna, White House Official Reporter.

Q. I would like to be accurate.

THE PRESIDENT. DO you know what the question was ?

Q. It was your last sentence of that part of your comment on the Eisenhower matter.

THE PRESIDENT. All right, read it.

[The White House Official Reporter read the sentence. The President then resumed speaking.]

I think I said that the strike was settled before the message to the Congress was completed; it was settled while I was reading the message.

[5.] Q. Mr. President, in 1948, I believe, after you whistle-stopped through upstate New York, you told Mr. Waiter White of the NAACP that you were sure that you were going to win the election. I notice that you are going to whistlestop through upstate New York again this year. Do you think that will give you the same idea of the trend of the way the election is going ?

THE PRESIDENT. I can answer the question better, after the trip. [Laughter]

Q. Mr. President, last time, in 1948, I think Mr. Biffle⁵ was going around the country disguised as a chicken farmer, and reporting to you. Do you have any such agent

THE PRESIDENT. I am not a candidate this time. [Laughter]

⁵ Leslie L. Biffle, Secretary of the Senate.

[6.] Q. Mr. President, Republicans say that South Carolina is going presidentially Republican. How much of a majority do you think Ike will get down there ?

THE PRESIDENT. What was the question?

Q. Republicans say South Carolina will go Republican in the presidential election this year. How much majority do you think Ike will get down there ?

THE PRESIDENT. I am not an authority on Republican majorities, so I can't tell you. [Laughter]

[7.] Q. Mr. President, do you plan, ever, to make public the report to you last February on the subject of psychological strategy by Gordon Gray ?

THE PRESIDENT. No, I do not. The parts of it that can be made public have been made public, I am sure. I do not intend to release the report.

[8.] Q. Mr. President, now that your favorite Republican candidate, Senator Taft, seems to have gotten into the act, would you care to comment on the Republican campaign as it stands now, with both Eisenhower and Taft working together ?

THE PRESIDENT. I would refer you to the statement of the candidate for President, Governor Stevenson. I think he answered it completely.

Q. Are you referring to the statement, sir, in which he said that General Eisenhower had surrendered to Senator Taft ?

THE PRESIDENT. That's the one.

Q. Mr. President, do you think Mr. Lausche is going to be able to beat Mr. Taft in Ohio?

THE PRESIDENT. I don't know anything about Ohio politics, and I can't answer the question. The best thing for you to do is to go out there and talk to Lausche^.6

⁶ Governor Frank J. Lausche of Ohio, Democratic candidate for reelection, defeated Republican candidate Charles P. Taft, brother of Senator Robert A. Taft, in the election held on November 4.

[9.] Q. Mr. President, do you expect to see Governor Stevenson before you go West ?

THE PRESIDENT. If he wants to see me, of course I will be glad to see him, but he is a very busy man. I don't know whether he will have time to see me this time or not, but I will be glad to see him.

Q. I notice he is in Springfield the 28th, and you will be going into Chicago the 28th

THE PRESIDENT. No special arrangements have been made. We may accidentally run into each other. If he wants to see me, I will be glad to see him; and if I want to see him, he will be glad to see me. [Laughter] We are in perfect agreement.

[10.] Q. Mr. President, when Mr. Thomas Fairchild of Wisconsin called on you yesterday, was he able to convince you that he might beat Senator McCarthy ?

THE PRESIDENT. He impressed me as being a very able and decent citizen, and one that any Democrat can endorse for the United States Senate; and I hope he wins.

[11.] Q. Mr. President, do you know of any plans for you to speak on the same platform as Governor Stevenson during the campaign ?

THE PRESIDENT. No, I don't.

Q. Mr. President, more to the point, you won't be back from New London in time to meet Governor Stevenson when he comes through here Saturday?

THE PRESIDENT. I don't know what time he is coming through. I can't answer the question. Ask Governor Stevenson about his plans. I didn't make them. I make my own--

Q. I didn't know whether you would be back in town, that was the point.

THE PRESIDENT. I will be back in town just as fast as the plane can bring me, after we have lunch up there. It ought to be around 3 o'clock, I judge.

[12.] Q. Mr. President, I wonder if you have any comment on some Republican criticism of Governor Stevenson's witticisms in some of his speeches?

THE PRESIDENT. Governor Stevenson's speeches impressed me as being excellent, and if the Republicans don't like these humorous jibes at themselves, I am sorry that their hide is so tender. [Laughter]

[13.] Q. Mr. President, Senator Taft said in his speech yesterday in Springfield, Ohio, that only the Congress of the United States saved this country from going socialistic. Would you agree with that evaluation?

THE PRESIDENT. I would not. I will answer that on a whistlestop one of these days, and tell you what kind of socialism we've got. It's pretty good.

[14.] Q. Mr. President, do you have any comment now on how the Democratic campaign is being handled ?

THE PRESIDENT. The Democratic campaign is being handled in good shape. If you will read all the screams in the Republican press, that's enough to convince you.

[15.] Q. Mr. President, on your western tour, do you plan to take along your own confetti and campaign balloons ?

THE PRESIDENT. I never have had to do that. I don't think I'll start at this late date. [Laughter] In fact, I would just as soon do without the confetti and the balloons. It gets in your hair.

Q. How many whistlestop speeches do you think you will make this time, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT. I don't know. I haven't the slightest idea. I will just go where I'm told, and stop where I'm told.

Q. I notice that the itinerary as given out is just about as long as any of the train trips up to now, and I remember one similar trip where you made 64 speeches.

THE PRESIDENT. Well, let us say we made maybe the same speech 64 times; but it accomplished the purpose. [Laughter] I will stop wherever they want me to, and do the best I can. And to tell you the honest truth, I always enjoy it. I had a good time coming across West Virginia the other day.

Reporter. We enjoyed it, too. Thank you, sir.

THE PRESIDENT. It's all right.